Guest Artist Program
Our recent list of Guest Artists includes:

Jackie Arrington
Cutter/Draper
Jackie received her Master of Fine Arts degree at New York University and attended The Parsons School of Design and The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Some of her opera credits include Don Giovanni, Carmen, and Tosca. Arrington has also done movie work, including Alice, Shadows and Fog and Mac. Her television credits include Honor Thy Father and The Barney Musical Tour. She now resides in Dallas, Texas.

Barbara Bell
Designer
Currently, resident designer at the Pearl Theatre in New York, she spent several weeks with us working with students in the costume shop on period men’s clothing for the WVU productions of It's a Wonderful Life, The Ghost Sonata and The Time of Your Life while guest lecturing in design classes.

Tom Bloom
Actor/Director/Photographer
Actor: After graduating from Western Maryland College, Tom began his acting career as an apprentice at the Totem Pole Playhouse, directed by Bill Putch and his renowned wife, Jean Stapleton. Following his hitch as a musician in the U.S. Navy from 1966-70, he attended Emerson College in Boston, where he received his MA in Directing. While continuing to direct in New England, he gradually came back to acting, working several seasons at Israel Horovitz’ Gloucester Stage and at other Boston theatres. Tom moved to New York in 1984 and began an extensive regional career. He has acted several seasons at the Williamstown Festival, Yale Rep, McCarter Theatre, and Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, Trinity Rep, Capital Repertory, Dorset Theatre, Buffalo Studio Arena, The Theater at Monmouth (Maine), Indiana Rep, and Coconut Grove, among others. In New York, Tom has appeared on Broadway in Henry IV, with Kevin Kline, Racing Demon, and The Rehearsal. Off-Broadway, he has performed at Roundabout Theatre, Circle In The Square, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights’ Horizon, Classic Stage, The Lortel, NY Stage and Film, Naked Angels, The Pearl Theatre, and Circle Rep.

Director: Tom was founder and Artistic Director of two theatres—Theatre Group Limited, a summer stock theatre in Vergennes, Vermont, and American Premiere Stage in Boston, a theatre devoted to new works. He has directed in many other theatres in the Boston area, among them Gloucester Stage, Theatre By The Sea in New Hampshire, People’s Theatre, Court Repertory, Rockport Pleighfare, and Playwrights’ Platform. In New York, he was a staff director for Tom Fontana’s Writer’s Theatre, and has directed at Capital Rep in Albany, and Circle Rep Lab, among others.

Photographer: Tom began his photography career in the Navy, while serving as a Navy musician. In graduate school, he devoted his energies to performance photography and, in addition to developing his acting-oriented style of headshots, gradually became Boston’s foremost dance and theatre photographer, working for most of the professional theatre and dance companies in Boston and New England, among them Boston Ballet, Billy Wilson Dance Theatre, Concert Dance, Harvard Summer Repertory Theatre, Berkshire Festival, Theatre By The Sea, and many others. Tom’s studio in Boston enjoyed a constant parade of the varied talents of Boston and New England actors, dancers, comedians, musicians, mimes, theatre companies, models, and magicians. The studio was also constantly in use for rehearsals of plays. In New York, Tom continued his photographic career, along with his acting and directing. This combination has allowed the development of a unique style of shooting portraits and, as a result, he has become one of New York’s best-known headshot photographers. He is co-author, with the late Jill Charles, of THE ACTOR’S HEADSHOT AND RESUME´ BOOK, a workbook for actors to help in the process of finding and accomplishing a fine headshot, as well as guidance in the writing of a resume.

Michael Bogdanov
Director/Author
Creator of the adaptation of The Canterbury Tales (recently performed at the Guthrie Theatre), joined us to help tailor the show for our Appalachian-style production.

Robert Durkin
Director/Choreographer from New York that directed our production of Pippin.

Joseph Graves
Writer/Actor/Director

Writer: Joseph has written extensively for film and stage: He has been commissioned to write 14 screenplays including the highly-rated Movie Of The Week Sweetwater for Viacom, which was the first film in VH-1's ongoing "films that rock" series. Along with his original pieces, Joseph has done re-writing work on such notable Hollywood films as: Six Days/Seven Nights (with Harrison Ford), Junior (with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emma Thompson) Ed Wood (with Johnny Depp) and the critically acclaimed film Go to name but a few. On stage his works have received productions at the L.A. Stage Company, The Moscow Arts Theatre, Perth Repertory Theatre and The Texas Shakespeare Festival: including such plays as: Bunyan, Word Circus, The Gun Fighter, Deep Wood 36, and Revoco, a musical drama (written with Emmy Award–winning composer Mort Garson).

Director: Joseph has directed more than forty productions in this country, Great Britain and China, including the following:

Great Britain: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, The Alchemist, The Sea Gull and Two Gentlemen of Veronaat such notable venues as The Welsh National Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, The Haymarket Theatre (West End), Perth Repertory Theatre and Traverse Theatre.

China: As You Like It, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest in various theatres in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Tianjin. These three productions represented the first time in China's history that Chinese actors performed Shakespeare plays in English.

U.S.: The Imaginary Invaid, The King Stag, Henry IV Part I, Richard II, Julius Caesar, Tartuffe, True West, The Glass Menagerie, Lost in the Stars, Unclae Vanya, and Our Town, at such venues as La Jolla Playhouse, Los Angeles Stage Company, Wilshire Theatre, The Westwood Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Co., A Noise Within.

World Premieres: In the last three years Joseph had directed four World Premiere pieces: Wuornos, an Opera, Yerba Buena Center For The Performing Arts, San Francisco; Word Circus* a play in poems with International poet/political activist Yevgeny Yevtushenko (International Poetry Festival); Revoco* a musical drama, Texas Shakespeare Festival; and Rouge et Noir* an historical drama and environmental theatre piece in which the actors followed the audience for a two-mile journey along the infamous Trail of Tears.
* written by Joseph.

Actor: Joseph has appeared in guest-starring roles in dozens of television shows from the early '80s to the present such as Z-Cars in London (series lead); in America: Laverne and Shirely, Knight Rider, Fantasy Island, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing, Dallas, Moonlighting, Murphy Brown, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and E.R. to name but a few.

On stage, Joseph has been in more than one hundred professional productions including the title roles in: Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, King Lear, Henry V, Tartuffe, and Uncle Vanya. Some of his other roles include Henry Higgins/My Fair Lady, Tevye/Fiddler on the Roof, Teach/American Buffalo, Tom/The Glass Menagerie, Orlando/As You Like It, Chorus/Henry V, Mercutio/Romeo and Juliet, Prospero/The Tempest, Iago/Othello, Willie Stark/All the King's Men, Andy/Star Spangled Banner, Linus/You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and Biff/Death of a Salesman. His acting work has been seen at such venues as: Perth Rep. and The Royal Court Theatre in London and in this country at Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, The Geffen Playhouse, Wilshire Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre (Boston), Denver Theatre Center, Texas Shakespeare Festival and Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Training: Joseph received his formal theatrical training from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He has received writing and/or directing grants from The National Endowment For The Arts, The J.W. Kellog Foundation and the Arkansas Endowment for the Arts.

Joseph is currently on staff as a Foreign Expert at Peking University in Beijing, China, where he is working to help establish the first university theatre department in that country.

Roger Jerome
Actor

Roger Jerome first visited the College of Creative Arts in 1988 and is delighted to return. In the early 1990s, he directed a studio project on Richard III here, and appeared in two West Virginia Public Theatre seasons, as Doolittle (My Fair Lady) and Captain Hook (Peter Pan). Roger is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he studied under the legendary Clifford Turner. Going straight into provincial repertory from RADA, Roger played a wide variety of characters including Stanley (The Birthday Party), Estraon (Waiting for Godot), Lord Fancourt Babberley (Charley’s Aunt), Rochefort (The Three Musketeers) and Feste (Twelfth Night). A stint at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Straford-Upon-Avon saw him working with such luminaries as John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Plummer, Ian Bannen and Peggy Ashcroft. Roger toured every major British city with Beyond the Fringe, appeared as the Beggar (The Beggar’s Opera) in Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and Paris and was featured in Saint’s Day at the St. Martin’s Theatre in London.

He has now settled in Ohio. He acts, teaches and takes a number of solo shows on tour (Merlin and Arthur, Alice and Compan, An Audience With Boz). Roger has appeared at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, where he was Capulet (Romeo and Juliet). For Pittsburgh’s Irish and Classical Theatre (PICT), Roger played Teddy Brian (Faith Healer), Tartuffe (Tartuffe) and Hardcastle (She Stoops to Conquer). Also in Pittsburgh, he was Ben Weatherstaff (The Secret Garden). Roger is a member of American and British Equity and frequently gets to do voice-overs, industrials and commercials. During October 2002, he toured Ireland (North and South) in Faith Healer, playing thirteen venues.

Robert Klingelhoeffer
Set Designer
Resident Designer for the Fulton Opera House and the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theate in New York, Robert spent several weeks with us guest lecturing in classes and designing our production of A Piece of My Heart.

Robert G. Leigh
Director, Getting Married
Robert most recently received an Orange County (California) Weekly Best Direction Award for his production of That Which Remains: Dramaticules by Samuel Beckett at the Chance Theater. He received an honorable mention from Backstage West for his direction of Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs at the Studio Theatre in Long Beach and Dramalogue Awards for Outstanding Direction for Strange Snow at the Laguna Playhouse and Beau Jest and Tracers at the Studio Theatre. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at numerous Southern California universities and colleges, including University of California, Irvine; California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; California State University, Long Beach; and Santa Ana, Fullerton, Long Beach City, and El Camino Colleges.

Chris Otto
Dancer/Choreographer/Movement Artist
Spent several weeks teaching in our movement classes focusing on movement with objects.

Louis Rackoff
Guest Artist/Director, King Lear Project, Spring 2004
Louis Rackoff was the Artistic Director of the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival from 1988 through 2002, where he directed or supervised more than sixty productions. Recent directing for NCSF included Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and King Henry V; Anton Chekov’s Three Sisters, and Lou’s original adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Lou has directed a wide range of productions for professional and university theatres throughout the country, including a national tour of the New York Shakespeare Festival Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance. His most recent projects include: Shakespeare’s Lovers for the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre BFA program, performed at the Illusion Theatre in Minneapolis; Anne Nelson’s The Guys at Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Holland, Michigan; and To Kill a Mockingbird for Georgia Ensemble Theatre, in Atlanta. Lou taught Acting, Directing and Stage Management at Fordham University at Lincoln Center, and also worked as a Production Stage Manager for the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Darrell Rushton
Movement and Acting Teacher/Fight Director

Darrell joined the WVU faculty to teach with his friend, Assistant Professor of Movement Jessica Morgan, for the Spring 2004 modules. He is a recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, earning his MFA in Theatre Pedagogy, with an emphasis in Physical Acting. Primarily a movement and acting teacher, Darrell is also well versed in Performance Theory, Asian Theatre, Theatre History, and Musical Theatre.

A veteran of New York City, Orlando, and other markets, Darrell brought his 15 years of professional experience as a dancer, actor and singer to the students who attended the Auditioning for Musical Theatre Class. He has appeared in a variety of shows and venues as a singer/dancer, including 7 Brides for 7 Brothers (twice), West Side Story, A Chorus Line, and The Music Man (twice). At the Cumberland Theatre (western Maryland’s only Regional Professional Theatre), he appeared as Jeff in Brigadoon, The Kralahome in The King and I, Mr. MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie, and as the lead in A Woman in Black. He also worked at Universal Studios Florida for two years and, while in Orlando, danced at the Mark II in Oklahoma! and Hello, Dolly.

As a fight director, Darrell just finished working with director Bob Durkin on The Unsinkable Molly Brown (national tour), produced by Windwood Productions. This year, he also choreographed Romeo and Juliet and Flyin’ West for Frostburg State University. Other productions at Frostburg State include I Hate Hamlet, Othello, Man of LaMancha, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Fuddy Meers, and Breath, Boom (with guest playwright Kia Corthron). While at Virginia Commonwealth University, Darrell choreographed The Rivals with guest director Karen Kessler. In addition, Darrell holds Society of American Fight Directors recognition in six weapons (Knife, Unarmed, Single Sword, Rapier and Dagger, Broadsword, and Quarterstaff). He attended the National Fight Directors Workshop and worked as an intern at the National Stage Combat Workshop. He has also published two articles in The Fight Master (the journal of the Society of American Fight Directors), one on action choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping and one on the artistic process of choreographing Breath, Boom.

Darrell is married to Frostburg State University acting teacher Mairzy Yost and together they are raising their adopted son, Paul-Michael. He currently resides in Cumberland, Maryland, runs the Performing Arts Center at Frostburg State University, and teaches as an adjunct professor there as well.

Alan Sener
Artist-in-Residence, Dance Program, 2000-2004

Alan Sener, artistic director of The Repertory of Louis Falco in New York City, was principal dancer with the Louis Falco Dance Company from 1978 to 1983 and has performed extensively in theatres and on television throughout the world. He served for 15 years as Louis Falco’s choreographic assistant on feature films, music videos, television commercials, and for the creation and reconstruction of Falco ballets for many of the world’s leading dance companies. In 1993, Sener became artistic director of The Falco Repertory and continues to stage the late choreographer’s work internationally.

Sener has conducted master classes and choreography workshops worldwide. His full-time visiting artist appointments in the United States include the University of California at Santa Barbara and Virginia Commonwealth University. For the University of Iowa Dance Department, he teaches contemporary technique, choreography, and improvisation. He also was director of “Dancers in Company,” the university’s touring repertory dance company, for four consecutive seasons. Other schools he as worked with include the University of Wisconsin, Stephens College, West Texas A&M University, Ball State University, the University of Utah, Barat Conservatory of Dance, and the University of Colorado. Sener has choreographed seven national television commercials, three music videos, and two feature films. His recent choreography for musical theater includes the Cleveland Playhouse production of It’s a Wonderful Life.

Judy Shepard
Social Justice Activist
Mother of Matthew Shepard, whose death was the subject of The Laramie Project.

Robin Van-Leer
Puppeteer/Mask Maker/Performance Artist
Currently, at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Robin taught classes and lectured in our Guest Artist Series.


For more information about our guest artists for the upcoming academic year please see our web site for biographies and lecture schedules.